Westward Expansion Thesis

Throughout the 19th century European settlers in the United States were enthralled by Westward expansion, furthermore, defining the Western region of the country as the ‘frontier’ to represent the challenges and opportunities expanding West would institute. Westward expansion was significantly driven by the concept of Manifest destiny which describes the idea that Europeans have the divine power and inherent right to expand across North America (Burton, January 17th, 2023). Westward expansion was legally encouraged and endorsed by the federal government through the Homestead act of 1862. The Homestead Act encouraged Westward migration/ settlement by offering land grants to settlers from the East willing to migrate to the West to develop the land.

This Act brought about substantial waves of migration, including over two hundred seventy million acres of land granted to over four million settlers (Burton, January 17th, 2023). In 1890 the US Census Bureau declared the frontier closed, ending the manifest destiny, in addition to this the Homestead Act was repealed in 1972. Manifest destiny alongside the Homestead Act will be the precursor and catalyst to the large extent of violent conflict and nation wars emerging between European settlers and Native Americans over the right to land and resources. The closure of the Western frontier in 1890 marked the end of an era of Westward expansion in the United States, and continues to have profound implications for American society, particularly for Black Americans, Indigenous peoples, and immigrants, whose lives were impacted by the legacies of colonialism through the loss of opportunity and the rise of social tensions fueled by Social Darwinism and